


Cottonwood Poplar

by EllieMurasaki



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Community: spn_bitesized, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-02
Updated: 2010-08-02
Packaged: 2017-10-10 22:01:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/104781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllieMurasaki/pseuds/EllieMurasaki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mary is a cheerleader.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cottonwood Poplar

**Author's Note:**

  * For [morebutterflys](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=morebutterflys).



Mary joins the junior varsity cheerleading squad her first year of high school. Athleticism in a cheerleader is expected. In any other girl, it's looked sideways on. (Leered at, rather.) She's a poplar tree in Kansas: a black poplar will attract attention that a cottonwood poplar won't. Hunters can't afford to draw attention.

Mary stays on the varsity cheerleading squad till she graduates high school. Technically, anyway. She isn't involved in the end-of-year pep rally or anything—nobody expects Mary to have much attention for anything, since she only just finished arranging her parents' funerals. Mary's not the cheer captain and she's not marrying a football player, and she's not planning on staying at home to dust the windowsills while her man earns their living—she's keeping Campbell Cleaners running as well as her dad did until she can find someone to sell to, and she's only planning on selling because owning a business takes time she needs for important things—but she's still a cheerleader. She's a poplar tree in Kansas. Part of the landscape. Nothing to remark upon.

She has ten years to figure out what that demon intends to take in exchange for John's life. Six months more to figure out why it matters to Van Halen that she stay in bed on November second. Mary can't afford to draw attention.

**Author's Note:**

> The state tree of Kansas is the cottonwood poplar. The black poplar is a related species found in Europe and Asia.


End file.
